Carmel man out to save the sharks being killed on NBC Sports’ ‘Shark Hunters’

For AJ Mills, of Carmel, sharks are not just the kind of killers one might remember from movies like ‘Jaws.’

More than a month ago, Mills was at home when he saw a commercial for the new NBC Sports show ‘Shark Hunters.’

According to the NBC Sports website, the goal of the show is to award prizes to fishermen that catch and present dead mako, thresher and porbeagle sharks.

Mills said he immediately became upset, knowing that many of these sharks are near extinction or near to being endangered species.

Mills decided to launch a petition on Change.org, to prove to NBC that the show should be cancelled. His online petition already has more than 85,000 signatures. He’s also contacted NBC Sports directly asking for cancellation of the show.

Mills manages a Twitter account @cancelsharkhunt that has 700 followers, and said he hopes NBC producers will consider a cancellation.

“We are campaigning against the show,” Mills stated in a recent Tweet, noting that he disagrees with anyone promoting “ecocide,” or the destruction of creatures useful to the ecosystem.

“The NBC Sports show Shark Hunters glorifies and promotes the killing of sharks, amazing animals already under pressure from overfishing, finning and environmental pollution. And all three of the species hunted on ‘Shark Hunters’ are listed as “Vulnerable” by The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources,” Mills stated.